


A Word to the Fool

by Senji



Category: Malory Towers - Enid Blyton
Genre: Bechdel Test Pass, Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 18:23:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/600777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Senji/pseuds/Senji
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alicia offers June the benefit of her own hard-won lessons.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Word to the Fool

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hafl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hafl/gifts).



‘June!’ her mother called from the house, ‘you've forgotten your tennis racket!’ 

‘Bother,’ said June, ‘I'd better go get that.’ She gave her cousin a wry smile and ran back up the garden path to where her mother was waiting in the doorway. 

‘There you go dear. Now I don't want to be hearing from Miss Grayling this term.’ 

‘Not even if I win a prize?’ retorted June; doing her best to look innocent and failing. 

‘Well, I suppose we could make an exception in that case,’ her mother replied with a smile in her eye, ‘now be off with you, you don't want to make Alicia late with your dallying.’ 

She threw the racket and an envelope into the back of the car, jumped in next to her cousin, and closed the door with a bang. 

‘We're all in father!’ Alicia shouted. 

‘Good good!’ he started the car and turned onto the road. ‘If you've forgotten anything else then you'll just have to do without until half-term.’ 

‘I've got everything now!’ June assured him, turning nearly right around to check her bags were all safely stowed. 

‘Is that your health certificate?’ asked Alicia, indicating the envelope. ‘Please don't tell me you're turning into another Irene; one of them in the school is bad enough!’ 

‘Gosh no! I don't think that anyone could possibly be that scatterbrained if I hadn't met Irene in person. I'd thought you had made up half your stories about her before that.’ 

June grinned, then returned her attention to the question, ‘mother hadn't wanted to fill this out until the very last moment. She was quite mindful of what happened with Sarah last term.’ 

‘Oh yes! Imagine what it must have been like for her to get all the way to Malory Towers only to have Matron put her straight into Quarantine and then sent back home the next day.’ 

‘Absolutely beastly, but at least she hadn't infected any of us. I can't imagine what it would be like if we'd all been lying groaning in our beds with the school in Quarantine.’ June shuddered at the thought. 

‘I'm sure you would have found some way to brighten things up. Sadly those of us in the sixth-form are expected to be adult and responsible. Those of us who weren't lying in bed would have been acting as nurses for Matron rather than planning jokes and tricks.’ Alicia sighed; remembering her own younger years. 

‘Well, you lot are just so amazingly _pi_. I wonder that you manage to have any fun at all. I'm still going to be planning tricks in my sixth-form.’ June said with determination. 

Alicia's eyes flashed and she turned on her cousin, ‘you will not, June Johns, it's fine for the lower school to joke around and play tricks but in the upper school you carry the good name of our family and Malory Towers.’ 

June opened her mouth to give a short reply but Alicia interrupted her, ‘and if I hear you've been bringing disrespect to those names I'll come down from college and tell you off myself.’ 

‘I…’ June stopped, recognising the fire in Alicia's face. It wasn't worth trying to argue with her when she was riled up like that, so she turned away to look out of the window for a while. 

The miles passed in silence, and it wasn't until after they had stopped for lunch that either cousin spoke again; and when June did it was in exasperation. 

‘Fiddlesticks! I've left the latest tricks catalogue on my dressing table at home. I shall have to write and ask them to send me another copy; mother will be sure to have tidied it away by now.’ 

‘Is that _all_ you think of?’ Alicia asked, having been in a pleasant daydream of all the news had to exchange with Betty and the rest of the sixth-form. 

‘Well, no, but there's a lot of time in between lessons, and meals, and sports practice, and twitting the other girls.’ 

Truth be told her tricks and her quick wit, both with wordplay and in lessons, where the only things that garnered June any respect in her form; since she tended to be overbearing and self-assured. 

‘Well I suggest you do try and find something more appropriate to put your mind towards,’ Alicia said and, seeing the heat rising in her cousin's face again, continued quickly, ‘wait, hear me out. You are rather like me, like much of the family I guess, and you aren't going to find anything in lessons to stretch you until fifth- if not sixth-form.’ 

‘You're a bit more hot-headed than me though, and I had enough problems with judging people too quickly and came close to becoming a pariah in my form a couple of times as a result. Meanwhile you will find that Miss Peters will see through pretty much any trick you try, and Miss Williams is deadly serious.’ 

Anyone watching June would have observed a range of emotions passing over her face during this lecture, but Alicia seemed to be looking more into her own heart as she went on. 

‘Try and think who the real June is, without the tricks, and maybe without the horseplay. Is that someone you want to be?’ Alicia paused, gauging the reaction on her cousin's face, before continuing ‘if not then what do you need to learn to become someone you want to be?’ 

‘I learned some of it during the fifth-form pantomime; and I think that Darrell would ask you to think back to Miss Grayling's first-day lecture and say that how much you get out of the school will depend on how much you put into it.’ 

June scowled briefly at the mention of Darrell, the Head Girl whom she though was far too pious for words, but until first the sea and then the towers of the school wiped all serious thoughts from both of their minds it was a thoughtful silence that filled the car. 


End file.
